Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants begins in 1931, when Jacob Jankowski, a Cornell veterinary student, learns his parents have died in a car crash and abandons his final exams. He jumps a train that turns out to belong to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a struggling Depression-era circus, and is hired as its veterinarian. The plot unfolds through Jacob’s first-person narration as a ninety-something resident of a nursing home, where his memories of the circus are triggered by a visiting show and by his frustration at his family’s control over his life. The novel alternates between these two timelines, contrasting the indignities of old age with the precarious world of the travelling circus. Gruen’s central framework is the hierarchy and brutality of circus life, particularly the “bull men” who handle the elephants and the owner, Uncle Al, whose financial desperation drives increasingly dangerous decisions. Jacob becomes entangled with Marlena, the equestrian star, and her husband August, a charismatic but abusive animal trainer. The arrival of Rosie, an elephant who appears untrainable until the men discover she responds to Polish commands, becomes the engine of the plot. Gruen researched circus history, incorporating real practices such as the Redlighting of workers and the transporting of menageries by rail. The title refers to a Prohibition-era code for smuggling alcohol, but also to the water Jacob provides for the elephants. The novel explores loyalty, ethical treatment of animals, and the cost of survival during the Great Depression.